Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG to close this year

Star Wars Galaxies, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game
(MMORPG) set in the universe of the Star Wars films, is to shut down at the
end of this year.

Star Wars Galaxies. The MMORPG is going to shut down in December, creator Sony admits.Photo: SONY/LUCASARTS

3:42PM BST 27 Jun 2011

Sony, who created the game, announced via email and the game's support forum and website that the online game will be closed on 15 December. Talking to the online gaming site Massively, John Smedley, the head of Sony Online Entertainment, said that the it "[feels] like it's the right time for the game to end".

He said that the decision had come about because Sony's contract with the Star Wars franchise runs out in 2012. He denied that it was because of a drop in user numbers or the recent hacking attacks on Sony's PlayStation Network. "Populations have stayed pretty steady for a long time now," he said.

Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) was launched in 2003, and is set between the end of the first film to be released, Star Wars: A New Hope, when the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, and The Empire Strikes Back. Users could play as any one of 10 species, and could train as a Jedi or fly spaceships against each other in a vast online environment. It sold more than one million copies in its first month after release.

However, it has been losing numbers in recent years. Recent updates have reduced the complexity of the game and left long-term players unsatisfied; Sony has admitted that some of these changes were mistakes.

Mr Smedley says that the last three months of gaming will be free for users - Sony will stop billing in October.

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Alec Meer, a games reviewer for the blog Rock Paper Shotgun, wrote: "Farewell then, Galaxies. You were always a bit of a mess - but you were also one of the most fascinating and ambitious MMOs there's ever been.

"It's amazing it's kept going for so long, quite frankly."

Star Wars fans can now look forward to The Old Republic, a new MMORPG set in the Star Wars universe, which will be released by Electronic Arts' subsidiary BioWare in the second half of 2011.